CoronaVac efficacy at 50-90% in Brazilian trial: Sao Paulo official

[RIO DE JANEIRO] The CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech showed efficacy between 50 per cent and 90 per cent in Brazilian trials, Sao Paulo's state health secretary said, and full trial results will be released on Jan 7.

Results of trials in Brazil are known exclusively by Sao Paulo state's Butantan Institute biomedical research centre, which has an agreement with Sinovac to produce the vaccine, said health secretary Jean Gorinchteyn.

First trials showed efficacy above 50 per cent, the minimum required by Brazilian health regulator Anvisa, and below 90 per cent, Mr Gorinchteyn said in an interview with CBN radio aired late on Thursday.

At Sinovac's request, Sao Paulo's health department has not received the Chinese drugmaker's full trial results, he said, adding that the company will review the data before announcing final results.

Mr Gorinchteyn said on Friday in a televised interview with the GlowboNews channel that Butantan will disclose the data trial results on Jan 7.

The South American country has registered 7.45 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 190,488 deaths from Covid-19, the country's Health ministry said on Friday.

On Wednesday, Butantan had declined to specify the efficacy rate from a trial with 13,000 volunteers, citing contractual obligations with Sinovac, raising questions about transparency.

The CoronaVac vaccine showed 91.25 per cent efficacy in Turkey, according to an announcement on Thursday of interim data from a late-stage trial in the country.

REUTERS